Large Arctic Temperature Change at the Wisconsin-Holocene Glacial Transition

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Cuffey, Kurt M., Clow, Gary D., Alley, Richard B., Stuiver, Minze, Waddington, Edwin D., Saltus, Richard W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1995
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Greenland Ice Sheet Project; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.270.5235.455; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.270.5235.455

Analysis of borehole temperature and Greenland Ice Sheet Project II ice-core isotopic composition reveals that the warming from average glacial conditions to the Holocene in central Greenland was large, approximately 15°C. This is at least three times the coincident temperature change in the tropics and mid-latitudes. The coldest periods of the last glacial were probably 21°C colder than at present over the Greenland ice sheet.